CrystalvsSLICC
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
Crystal
Stravu · Agent harness
OSS
Panel
4.62 spec wins
- Reliability
- 4.3
- Usefulness
- 5.0
- Cost
- 6.5
- Longevity
- 2.5
“Still installable with one Homebrew command, which is the most alive thing about it.”
SLICC
AI Ecoverse · Agent harness
OSS
Panel
4.72 spec wins
- Reliability
- 3.7
- Usefulness
- 5.2
- Cost
- 6.5
- Longevity
- 3.5
“It is named the Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone, which is the first product on this board to review itself in the title.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | Crystal | SLICC |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Runs | local | local |
| Platforms | macos, windows | macos, linux, windows, web |
| Context window | not documented | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | No | No |
| MCP server | No | No |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-file edits | Yes | Yes |
| Git operations | YesEach session gets its own git worktree, and Crystal performs rebase and squash-to-main operations from the app. | No |
| Browser control | No | Yes |
| Sandboxed execution | No | No |
| Multi-agent orchestration | Yes | YesThe README lists multi-agent delegation and says SLICC can orchestrate several browsers at once. |
| Headless / CI mode | No | No |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | via managed agents (Claude Code, OpenAI Codex) | any configured provider |
| Bring your own model | No | Yes |
| Local models | No | No |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | free | byok |
| Starts at | $0/mo | $0/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Bring your own key | Yes | Yes |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| GitHub stars | 3,123 | 32 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | Crystal | SLICC | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 4.5 | 5.0 | SLICC — Pick SLICC only if the work you need automated lives inside apps you are logged into and nowhere else; pick a normal coding agent for anything that happens in a repository. |
| El Crítico | 4.3 | 4.3 | no preference |
| El Profesor | 5.3 | 5.0 | Crystal — The method was parallel sampling made visible: several sessions attempt one task in separate worktrees, and the human compares diffs rather than transcripts. |
| La Inversora | 4.0 | 4.5 | SLICC — 30 stars, first released in March 2026, and a hosted site sitting beside an open repository with no stated business model on either side. |
| La Jefa | 3.8 | 3.3 | Crystal — The licence costs nothing and I still cannot deploy it: deprecated by its vendor, packaged for macOS, and a source build is the only route on Windows. |
| El Hacker | 5.8 | 6.3 | SLICC — Apache-2.0, and npx launches Chrome against a workspace on my own disk, with a headless Go follower binary for the machines that have no display. No MCP client anywhere. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.